GLASGOW should considering severing its twinning relationship with Russian city Rostov-on-Don over the ongoing crisis in eastern Ukraine, councillors claim.

SNP members on the city council said Rostov-On-Don was used as the last staging post by the pro-Moscow separatists and gangster elements involved in the conflict, querying whether the city's Lord Provost had raised concerns with her Russian counterparts.

At its nearest point the southern city, twinned with Glasgow since the Soviet era, is a few dozen miles from the Ukrainian border and has a heavy Russian military presence.

It comes both as the official ceasefire in eastern Ukraine comes under continuing pressure days after being agreed by international powers and shortly after a visit to Rostov-on-Don by council officials from Glasgow.

At yesterday's full council meeting the SNP's John McLaughlin asked Lord Provost Sadie Docherty to contact the civic authorities in Rostov-on-Don "to ask them to urge the leaders of the Russian Federation to do all in their power to uphold and honour the ceasefire in Eastern Ukraine and to end the humanitarian tragedy here".

After a promise she would, Mr McLaughlin said if the Russian Federation failed to uphold its part of the agreed ceasefire and "bearing in mind that Rostov-on-Don is the last staging post for the supply of weapons" used by pro-Moscow forces would she consider reviewing the relationship.

Mrs Docherty agreed to hold discussions with officials before sending a letter to her counterparts in Rostov-on-Don.

A member of the SNP group later told The Herald they were not taking sides in the increasingly brutal conflict but using whatever limited influence they had in the crisis.

It is the second in 18 months Glasgow's relationship with Rostov-on-Don has been called into question, with the Lord Provost facing criticism both for failing to and then later condemning the local administration over Moscow's legislation curbing gay rights.

Glasgow's extensive twinning arrangements and the track records of some of those cities it has relationships with have also been questioned in recent times. The city has formal relationships with the Chinese city of Dalian and Cuban capital Havana, both with questionable human rights records.

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